After last year’s event in Salford, at the BBC’s flash new home in Media City, this year’s edition travelled yet further north to Glasgow and Celtic Connections festival. Co-presenters Julie Fowlis and Mark Radcliffe did a great job keeping things on track, with just one winner (Roy Harper, a Lifetime Achiever) veering off-course slightly, taking the opportunity to make a quick dig at Alex Salmond and the Scottish independence campaign.

Guest presenters (unsurprisingly largely Scottish) included Ricky Ross from Deacon Blue, Altered Images’ Claire Grogan, Julia Donaldson, author of The Gruffalo, fiddler John McCusker, Green Gartside from Scritti Politti, and first minister for Scotland, Alex Salmond. There were a couple of firsts for the Folk Awards – a footballer (Pat Nevin), an appearance of shorts onstage (Glastonbury’s Michael Eavis) and an Englishman in a kilt (Steve Knightley). Other guests included Martin Carthy, Mary Chapin Carpenter, Martha Wainwright and our very own columnist Cerys Matthews who gave WOMEX in Cardiff a good plug. The sweetest acceptance speech came from the Young Folk Award winners (Greg Russell & Ciaran Algar) who thanked their school for letting them have two days off.

The evening was rounded off very nicely with the much-admired singer-songwriter Dougie MacLean winning a Lifetime Achievement Award for his contribution to songwriting. He was then joined by a whole army of new and previous award winners for a rendition of Scotland’s unofficial anthem, ‘Caledonia’ – an appropriate ending for this very Scottish Folk Awards.